Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and Church - UNESCO

Article By: Dan Hill

4 years ago

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Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and Church - UNESCO

The Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and Church, located in Jelling, central Jutland, Denmark, are collectively a World Heritage Site. The Jelling Mounds and Runic Stones were deemed to be an important example of Nordic pagan culture - whereas the church is deemed important evidence of the initial introduction of Christianity into Denmark - around the middle of the 10th century. King Gorm of Denmark, also known as Gorm the Old, or Gorm the Languid, erected the elder of the Jelling stones in honour of his wife, Thyra. When he himself died in 958, his son, Harald Bluetooth (yes - Bluetooth technology was named after him) - raised the second and larger stone, in memory of his parents. This stone is often referred to as "Denmark's birth certificate". The stones have runic inscriptions on them, and they are considered the best such examples in Denmark. Harald had inscribed on the stone for his parents, "King Harald bade this monument be made in memory of Gorm his father and Thyra his mother, that Harald who won for himself all Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians". The mounds themselves were 11 metres high pagan burial mounds built from layered and upturned turf. Each 70 metres in diameter, the northern end of the north mound also lay toward a bronze age burial chamber. The cemetery and the small whitewashed Christian church (including at least 3 wooden predecessors) at the site have been in use for over 1,000 years. Photo Credits: Image by Erik Lyngsøe from Pixabay By Casiopeia - photo taken by Casiopeia, CC BY-SA 2.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=197294